New York State Living Environment Laboratory



testing

Requirements


Each student must complete 1200 minutes of laboratory bench time, which is a large number of minutes if you consider that we meet once per week throughout the year. Do the math: 40 week school year x 40 minutes of lab per week = 1600 minutes. This of course assumes you miss no labs for things like holidays, sickness, band/choir practices, snow days, musicals..etc. On average, each student actually only gets at most about 36 lab sessions per year (36 x 40 = 1440) at Fillmore. If you are in a Monday or Friday lab, that number can decrease by 3 labs. Yes, I know, this means you simply cannot miss any labs. The truth is, you learn more in the labs. Be there and get them done.

Each student will be required to maintain a lab notebook, and to keep that notebook in a file cabinet in the lab room. You cannot take this notebook from my room. In my experience, students removing lab notebooks is a recipe for disaster. Leave them here, and we will all be happier in the end. Each lab assigned must be completed by the following week's lab, or you will be penalized in the class grade. Yes, I use labs as a grade for the class. It is incentive to get them done.

Required New York State Labs


There are 4 major labs each student must complete for this class, as required by the NY State Board of Regents. Each of these labs is multi-part and they take several weeks of lab time to complete. Please make absolutely sure that you get these done and that you understand them fully. Part D of the Regents exam is based entirely on these 4 labs. Success on the exam often hinges on your understanding of these labs. In fact, if you look at the possible points on the grading scale, you will find that Part D is worth approximately 1/4 of your passing grade on the Regents exam. If you want to pass, you better understand these labs.

Other Labs


Throughout the year, I will assign about 26-30 more labs for you to finish. Please finish them in a timely manner. Each of these labs is designed to increase your understanding of the subject matter, and to reinforce your learning of the materials of the course. No lab is optional, unless a meteor is about to strike the planet and end our human existences, in which case all labs are pretty much useless to us all, unless said lab happens to result in your discovery of a method for destroying meteors bent on wrecking our planet. If you do find that to be the case, please, by all means, share your work with others.



New York State Required Labs

Due to some ridiculous bureaucracy, these labs are no longer allowed to be shared. Ask your State Representative why it matters that I don't give you access to the labs in a digital form on this website. Apparently, State Ed thinks you can cheat if you have access to these. I don't see the point.


Other Labs